Notes on software development. From snippets of commands/code for my own reference to random ramblings

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Bitcoin Faucet - And I actually got paid by one of them

In the past weekend, there was a Bitcoin-themed hackathon in Hong Kong. Although I didn't participate, it did bring my attention to bitcoin again and I did a little bit of research about it.

While I was doing my research, I learn about these little sites called "Bitcoin faucet". For those of us old enough to know about those get-paid-to-surf-the-net-schemes back in the 90s (e.g. AllAdvantage, are the still around?), are they back?

At first I was skeptical, but I figure I will give them a try. Of the 7-ish Bitcoin faucets I tried over the week, one of them actually did payout. The faucet that paid out is http://freebitco.in/

And here is a screenshot of the transaction receiving the bitcoin!

That's right. A Grand Total of $0.14 USD. Is it worth the time? Probably not. But at the end of the day, what intrigues me is the ability to enable micro-transactions. After all, paying out $0.14 USD by any other means, the transaction cost is probably more than the actual amount transferred.

Like it or not, Bitcoin or some other crypto-currency technologies like this will open a whole new world for us.